Jaded
by yume girl 91
Summary: Love was cheap; there was no doubt about that. AU UlquiRuki love/hate. ;D Give it a read!
1. Chapter 1

~Jaded: a love-hate story~

Love was cheap; there was no doubt about that.

True love was a maxim for sentimentalists whose minds were still in the days of sonnets and troubadours singing below balconies to swooning women.

Love could be bought.

He knew that.

On street corners or in expensive private rooms with silk screens and a painted woman ready for the night, all for a couple of thousand yen. _It was easy to not be alone_.

He stared at the young couple walking past, hand in hand, smiling into each others' face, perhaps imagining this to be a lifetime love: _a love that would never be die_.

Everybody was afraid of dying alone.

He wasn't.

Money could buy all the companionship he wanted, even past the time when his looks faded; women were always ready to sell themselves for payment. And lord knows, he had enough of it.

Walking.

Thinking.

Walking.

And then…

"Oh, I'm sorry," a woman's voice apologized coolly, making it seem the opposite.

Their shoulders had collided, sending a large amount of sticky dark liquid onto the front of his suit. "Watch where you're going, woman," Ulquiorra replied coldly, taking in the sight of the diminutive figure of a skinny girl in a yellow sundress glowering at him.

"Shouldn't it be the other way around? Like maybe stop daydreaming _about your girlfriend_ and like_ watch where you're going_?" her tone was impudent and her look saucy.

"I don't have a girlfriend," he said blandly.

"Oh…don't tell me you're—"

"No!" Ulquiorra rubbed his forehead where a headache had begun to develop, _foolish trash_.

"You must be." She added with a knowing look he found irritating, "only ones on the verge are so defensive about it."

"Listen woman, my prefer—"

"Rukia," she interrupted impatiently.

"What?"

"My name. Idiot. See there I told you, now would you please stop calling me '_woman_'."

It was rhetorical and he knew it.

And had she just called him '_Idiot_'?

"You know what, this conversation is meaningless," he spun on his heel; ignoring the pout she gave him. "I don't make a habit of speaking with trash like _you_."

"Why you—" her eyes flashed and her hand flexed, hurling with perfect accuracy the rest of her soda onto his back as he strode away.

_Bastard_…Rukia thought.

_Damn woman_…Ulquiorra cursed in his thoughts.

~*~

At the top floor of the Las Noches towers, Ulquiorra entered the conference room sans his suit jacket. The wet stains had nearly faded by the time of the satellite meeting between the Executive and the interested party from overseas came in.

The screen flashed and a man, he recognized as being Byakuya Kuchiki, head of Kuchiki Enterprises, appeared, sitting in a palatial Hotel room.

"Good afternoon, Kuchiki-san," Ulquiorra began respectfully to which the other merely nodded curtly in acknowledgement. A small movement to the corner of the screen made the older man motion to someone else just out of the web cam's view to get closer.

"Before we discuss anything, Schiffer-san, I'd like to introduce my daughter, Rukia. She'll be handling these annoying affairs here in Japan," Byakuya draped his arm around the slender waist of a familiar petite girl wearing-you guessed it-a bright yellow sun dress. Violet eyes stared into the laptop screen into that of emerald green.

"You…it can't be…" he barely restrained the horror in his voice.

"Oh, but I am," Rukia smoothly replied, allowing a triumphant smile that could only be termed as an _evil smile_ grace her face.

~~~*~~~

Disclaimer: don't own Bleach.

A/N: I've taken the chapter 12 of Butterfly and decided to expand it. ;P yeah I've done the same with the KenseixRukia one-shot. CH.2 of that one is in the works. ;) Thanks for reading and more love-hate stuff is in store for Ulqui next chapter. ;D Reviews are always appreciated.

No flames or idiotic spammers.

Note: I am better from my cold though earlier I was still having sinus problems. :P


	2. Chapter 2

~Jaded: A love-hate story~

~~~*~~~

She was late and he hated it. Loathed being made to wait upon a woman whose father and his influence would secure the future of his company. Ulquiorra observed the time on the round plate glass face of the clock above the spacious receptionist's desk. The buxom woman who sat behind it, caught his eye and smiled slightly, he didn't return it, only swiftly turned on his heel and looked once more towards the wide double doors.

_Foolish trash...how dare she--_

It was then at that moment that the object of his silent ire chose to appear, walking in with a deliberate carelessness that made him further think _she was acting like she owned the place already_. "You're forty-five minutes late, Kuchiki," he said keeping a moderate coolness in his tone without appearing snappish. It wouldn't do to alienate the father through the daughter. Bearing that in mind, he bore her flippant reply to his words with little less than gritting his teeth.

"So, I am."

~*~

"What do you think of expansion in--" he looked up over the map of the proposed site. She was hunched over her cell, cycling through the numbers listed. "Kuchiki," he began, irritation in his voice. She glanced up, interrupting him, "why do you do that? It's bad form you know," her look was smug to the point of making him set down the plans and stare at her. "What do you mean?" he asked carefully.

"Drop off honorific. It's highly insulting unless we're _close_--" here a black brow rose over an emerald green eye. Rukia continued, "otherwise I request you add -san when addressing me."

_Request_? _How dare she-!_ He sensed her watching him and waiting for a reaction. _Think of stock prices_. His eyes closed briefly at this reminder and he swallowed his pride, averting his face as he spoke shortly, "fine. Kuchiki-_san_, would you please look over these with me?"

As he moved back at her approach, he couldn't help but not fail to notice her radiant smile that vanished all too briefly into her normal sardonic look.

~*~

"Are you married?" Rukia was looking over the wall of plaques and business degrees that decorated his office instead of watercolors or the ubiquitous family photos. "No. You should've known the answer to that from the first time," he replied, straightening the pile of in-documents before noticing her blank look.

"First time?" she echoed. "Yes," he said, settling a glass paper weight of Tokyo tower atop the neatened stack. Recognition crept slowly into her expression and a crooked grin interposed itself on her mouth when he half-turned away. "I threw my soda on you," she affirmed and he sighed. "That isn't something to be proud of. Any sane person wouldn't speak of it as an achievement."

"So, now I'm not sane, is that it?" she had moved closer and laid her hand atop the back of his chair, looking down at him with narrowed violet eyes. Ulquiorra realized he had mispoke at least in terms of where this girl stood in the building of the future for his company. "I did not mean you in particular," he replied, tapping the bottom of a sheaf of papers against the top of the desk with finality.

"Who then?" she crossed her arms over her narrow chest and tilted her head back to account for the difference in height when he stood. Ulquiorra pushed his chair back and sighed; _this woman_...

"Could you please remove yourself to the doorway?" He barely kept his emotions in check with her slight leer and lean up into his face. "_Remove myself_?" Rukia repeated, her eyes alight with a mischievous fire. He turned away, glancing toward the wall of bookshelves, their spaces near to being wholly unoccupied. "Make me."

_This woman_...he had the sudden urge to wrap his hands about her neck, feeling now as if he partially understood the reasoning of certain deviants of society. _She aggravated him to no end_! _And_. Slowly he reaffixed his gaze upon her and the close proximity in which she had forsaken common decency and--_seemed to be enjoying it_.

"_Please_ step away, Kuchiki-san." His voice was tight and barely controlled.

"That's the magic word," she said lightly and sauntered to the doorway as he had asked previously. A smirk played constantly on her lips at their exiting together; a refusal notwithstanding to walk her to the elevator did not dissaude her from following _him_. Ulquiorra managed to keep his expression from revealing his intense annoyance at her behavior and only wished to see the large underground parking garage and his sole spot beside the doors occupied by a silver BMW.

It was there as expected, however he did start to lose patience the moment she walked to the passengers side and waited expectantly for him to open the door.

"What are you doing?"

She gave him and the keys he held loosely in his left hand a look that it was the most obvious thing in the world and he was an idiot not to know it. "You are going to take me to dinner." she enunciated carefully as if he wouldn't understand a simple sentence.

He stared at her blankly, "why should I?"

A flash of annoyance of her own came out and her brow quirked over the moonroof of the car. "To celebrate our new partnership, what else?"

_New partnership_? his mind was reeling on the inside though his expression didn't reveal it. "--And of course after that you're going to take me to my hotel," she continued in tones of authority. A fresh wave of horror assaulted him and he managed to find his voice, "not me. Have your driver take you. I'm heading home." He made a motion to insert the key into the lock but was stopped by her queer look.

"Driver? I don't have one."

_What was wrong with_..."how did you come here then?" despite himself a touch of curiosity interlaced itself in his thoughts. _Him?_

"A taxi dropped me off." As if that solved everything, she laid her hand on the door pull and tugged of course knowing it wouldn't yield but sending the message across all the same. Ulquiorra sighed and mechanically opened the drivers side, slid in and threw the switch for the passenger door to unlock. Rukia was in beside him in seconds. Smiling brightly again as she fastened the seatbelt and shooting triumphant looks at him every so often..._she had gotten her way_. Realization of this indisputable fact that he had been manipulated--_skillfully by the woman_--was quite damaging to his pride.

_Not woman_, he corrected, glancing her way covertly in the twilight gloom that encompassed the interior of the vehicle as he pulled out into the street. _Girl. A not very pretty one either._

~To be continued~

AN: Ulqui is a bit of a jerk in this one--more than usual. Though, Rukia's behavior toward him in respect is much to blame for it. At one point even if it's not so clear at this stage--she feels some sort of attraction or link to him but on the next tries to exam it by tormenting him, knowing full well he will control his temper in front of her. Her feelings are hard to make across since the story is in his point of view. ;) Thanks for reading--no flames or idiotic spammers--reviews are always appreciated! :)


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